furthermore it just sounds silly because not only was denard 1-3 vs. state but also his stats were horrendous against state and I would even go so far as to say that he was the reason we lost a couple of those games...

State owned Denard... now he wants to call them little bro?

The only funny part of this was how upset some spartans did get, cause they say it doesn't matter, but i does, because they know the four years before last were the anomally...

"We take the rivalry from the corrupt! The Big Bro! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with coaches slapping themselves and 49-0 beatdowns, and we give it back to you... the Sparties. MSU is yours. None shall interfere. Do as you please. Start by storming Spartan Stadium, and freeing the oppressed! Step forward those who would serve. For Beer Bongs will be raised. The powerful will be ripped from their decadent dorms, and cast out into the cold world that we know and endure. Couches will be burned. Rioting will be enjoyed. Blood will be shed. The police will survive, as they run out of tear gas. This great campus... it will endure. Sparty will survive!"

"little brother" they are the little brother that grows up really fast and then kind of works the "big brother" over in games of one on one in the driveway. This angle on Staee is played. It also brought about years of wrath against everything Michigan the first time it was said. Let it go. Start beating them regularly and then we can just go back to not thinking about them at all.

I likes listening to Valenti and Foster talk about this. My favorite part was how they (yet again) were suggesting that Michigan fans are a bunch of trolling meatheads and all Sparties are rational and reasonable. And then Valentine says all the time "come on Michigan fans why aren't you calling in?" I wonder...

made the decision that between listening to Valenti and Foster or listening to other even worse radio I am going to listen to them, so I just listen to it for what it is. After listening to the show for a while, I am actually convinced that they plant calls. Not just pick the worst take from a Michigan fan but actually have people they know call in as "Michigan fans" and have them give the worst take ever and the Valenti switches to ultra-rational mode that he does not display at any other time. There are ignorant Michigan fans but some of the callers on that show cannot be legit. I honestly think they are planted.

You are spot on. There is so much garbage (cough Huge cough) on the radio in the afternoons that is all I can listen to, and I have suspected the same thing. I have heard a couple of rational fans slip through and before they can even finish whatever point they were making they get shouted down and hung up on.

The other day he was like "OK, I'll keep it real, and the big picture; since joining the Big Ten the record between Michigan and Michigan State is..." and the caller is all "wait, that's not ht 'big picture'...all time the record is..." Contradictory excuse, click, what music is playing right now....

What the fuck does Denard calling MSU little brother have to do with Devin Gardner? And how does beating a rival correlate into one's ability to be a pro QB, which by the way, Devin is entirely capable of being. To hell with such attributes like reading defenses, arm strength and accuracy, and leadership abilities. Breathing through your nose must be very taxing for you isn't it? Just saying...

I love how 'Little Brother' gets MSU fans all worked up, when it is their own coaches fault that it has taken on a life of their own. If Dantonio would have taken the high road than Mike Hart's little brother comment probably would have been a one or two weekend bit.

Sorry Sparty, but the second your coach responded to it it became a thing. As well, once Dantonio upped the ante and went with the "where's the threat" posing after 3 wins (while staring down the barrel of Hoke/Mattison killing him on the recruting trail) all of the 'little brother' and other content was going to be locked in forever.

Denard has no right to call State little brother. He was 1-3 against them and was just plain terrible when they played. Mike Hart knows what its like to be little brother, he was 0-4 against Ohio State. Pathetic. Its time for us to stop talking and start winning!

regardless of what his record was against them the statement is still true. MSU's season hinges on beating Michigan, that is a defination of a Little Brother mindset. The last 4 years don't all of a sudden make the rest of the series history irrelevant either.

I was also like to point out that is not like Denard got a whole lot of help in those games from the defense in the first two he took part in. He didn't start one of those games either, Forcier started in 2009.

When Sparty beats Michigan, that is typically their biggest accomplishment.

When Michigan beats Sparty, we laugh and tell them, "Better luck next year."

Arguably, Dantonio's greatest years came on the back of Michigan's worst. And even though he shared a conference championship with Wisconsin in 2010, they didn't go to the Rose Bowl, or a BCS bowl for that matter. However, in 2011, we LOST to Sparty, didn't win the conference, and went to the Sugar Bowl anyway. Whether or not we deserved to be there is irrelevant. The Bowl committee thought we were worthy, and not Sparty.

No matter what, the success of Sparty is always measured to the might of Michigan. As Michigan and Ohio State compete for conference titles, Rose Bowls, and National Championships every year, Sparty competes for...whatever the former two left behind in their pursuit of success.

So, even though Denard didn't win more than 1 game against Sparty, he is right - our important games rank OSU and ND before Sparty, therefore, they are the perennial little brother.

To be clear, it wasn't the Bowl Committee that selected Michigan over MSU. MSU was ineligible for the BCS bowls because of the hit their ranking took for losing to Wisconsin in the conference championship. Michigan, on the other hand, jumped into eligibility thanks to conference runners-up falling in the polls. Michigan basically benefited by virtue of doing nothing.

All that said, yup, the rivalry is fairly lop-sided in the relative intensity of it. MSU will always care way more about Michigan, in general, than Michigan worries about MSU. Going off of the whole BCS selection issue, for instance, the MSU response to losing the conference championship game was, of course, to complain about Michigan and how unfair it was that Michigan would probably go to a BCS bowl.

All that said, Michigan really needs to do its part in these rivalries. Start beating MSU, again. Start winning against OSU, again. Right now, ND probably has the most even recent history of the three rivals, with the added bonus of being pretty face-meltingly batshit lately.

I'd say we are on the right track to beating all three, though. I know that we are underdogs to OSU but if we can secure wins against ND and MSU, I would say that beating Ohio in the Big House would be excellent odds. Problem I have is the fact that we will probably play them twice.

What the author wrote is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on the internet is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

I was about to ask what the author did wrong, but then I clicked the link. I had read a totally different article before. This one took a very idiotic turn there somewhere in the middle.

And what's with everyone's obsession with how many times teams have played to be counted as a rival? How many times has Michigan played Wisconsin or Iowa? I don't think of either of those schools as rivals. And more broadly, what's with everyone's obsession with the "rival" label? During conference realignment, everyone constantly talks about "well, now Nebraska's new rival will be Wisconsin..." as if it's something that's just arranged or designated. I think anyone who has experienced Michigan-ND knows it's a pretty intense rivalry game.

And while I'm on it, what's the deal with airline food? They don't even give you peanuts anymore! And if you want those pretzels, better be prepared to pay up! Am I right? Sheesh, whatever happened to the days of a soggy and simultaneously stale sandwich?

This may be the unpopular opinion but Denard being 1-3 against Staee is irrelevant, IMO. Staee isn't little brother to certain players who were successful against them, they're little brother to the University of Michigan. Unless that changes, any M player has the right to view/refer to them as such. Backing it up on the field does better reinforce the idea, though.

The place of Michigan State will never hinge on 2, 4, or 10 years worth of results. They will always play second fiddle to the bigger, more popular, better school that shares their state. It's part of the reason they cling to the Wal Mart idea so fervently. It's a jealously induced reaction to undermine the fact that they are not the popular team, and don't really matter to anyone nationally.

To me, Denard's record against MSU is meaningless as the little brother is crowing about winning when the older brother was at his lowest historical point, and had to resort to all sorts of dirty crap (trying to rip Denard's head off) in order to win. Sparty, and their psychotic coach, showed that even when they have the upper hand they're still nothing but pathological brats.

And count me in with the sect that loves Denard but thinks a 1-2 record doesn't leave much room for him to rag on Sparty.

Now, if he wants to call ND "little brother"...I'll sign onto that all day long. What does a big brother do with a little brother? Teaches him to play a game...and then beats the pants off him at that game until he runs off crying and doesn't want to play anymore.

Yeah, I kind of feel the same way. And while Denard didn't play much that first game, he still was involved. So he's technically 1-3 against MSU. I'd have preferred he just listed the rivals and moved on. But whatever, minor quibbles.

As much as I liked Denard, he did not win a single Big Ten title... rare for a Michigan QB who started so long... plus, MSU beat him and good.... so he should really shut up, and should NOT have said that. There is NOTHING more unifying than a common enemy... and when Hart called MSU that, it did help bring them together....

I thought Tom Brady said it best when he talked about the guys wearing the helmets and playing now represent not only themselves and their team mates but every man that has ever worn that helmet through the years.....In some of the darkest days of the Maize and Blue, he and his smile and his magic brought the few rare smiles and moments of joy experienced by Michigan Men and Women throughout the Universe. Let us remember he did not win or lose those games all by his little lonesome....THE TEAM BOYS, IT IS ABOUT THE TEAM....